Australia puts China firmly in its sights with new defence strategy
- The 80-page document unveiled on Wednesday sets out huge increases to Australia’s defence spending and explicitly calls out ‘China’s coercive tactics’
- Defence Minister Richard Marles, presenting the text, said Australia’s ‘optimistic assumptions’ for the post-Cold War era were now ‘long gone’
The 80-page document offers a gloomy assessment of Pacific security and sets out a massive increase in defence spending to retool Australia’s military to cope.
“The optimistic assumptions that guided defence planning after the end of the Cold War are long gone,” said Defence Minister Richard Marles, presenting the new strategy.
Warning that “China has employed coercive tactics in pursuit of its strategic objectives”, the text describes an Australia vulnerable to foes strangling trade or preventing access to vital air and sea routes.
“We are a maritime trading island nation,” Marles said. “The invasion of Australia is an unlikely prospect in any scenario, precisely because so much damage can be done to our country by an adversary without ever having to step foot on Australian soil.”
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So instead of focusing on maintaining a military that can do a range of tasks almost anywhere in the world, Marles said there would be a laser focus on building a deterrent force that can protect Australia’s interests in its immediate region.